


Bashed

by AutisticWriter



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Anger, Angst, Bisexual Sirius Black, Blood and Gore, Broken Bones, Established Relationship, Fear, Friendship, Gay Bashing, Gay Remus Lupin, Hate Crimes, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Homosexuality, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Marauders' Era, Multi, One Shot, Pride, Slurs, Swearing, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-21
Updated: 2016-06-21
Packaged: 2018-07-16 11:48:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7266940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutisticWriter/pseuds/AutisticWriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sirius and Remus run a gay club at Hogwarts, and struggle to deal with the first ever hate crime on one of their members.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bashed

“Faggot!”

“Poofter!”

“Fairy!”

With every slur hurled at twelve year old Gilderoy Lockhart, he was punched in the face again. The boys gathered around him, all of them so much taller than him, and Gilderoy ended up pinned against the wall of the broom cupboard they had shoved him into.

He tried to yell out for someone to help him, but that earned him a punch in the jaw that dislodged some of his teeth and filled his mouth with blood. He tried to swallow the blood, but it made him feel sick.

“Shut up, you little fairy!”

He was punched in the face again, and he felt his nose break; blood oozed down his top lip and into his mouth.

“Please stop,” he begged, his voice coming out all squeaky.

The boys all laughed.

“Why don’t you stop being a poof?” The ringleader sneered, punching him again, making his head bang back against the wall.

“I c-can’t,” he said, screwing his eyes up, not wanting to see their taunting faces anymore.

Tears started to spill down his face. He felt pathetic for crying, but his nose hurt so much and he was so scared that he couldn’t stop.

“Look, now he’s crying. Grow some balls, Lockhart.”

As he spoke, he drove his knee between Gilderoy’s legs. He let out a hiss of pain, trying to double over, loads of blood spilling out of his mouth, and they all laughed like this was hilarious.

The ringleader pulled his rainbow badge off of his robes, ripping the fabric and breaking the pin in the process. Gilderoy wanted to argue, but he didn’t dare.

“I knew you were one of them the moment I saw you, you little fag, but this is just . . . I don’t know why they haven’t closed this fucking club down. Lupin and Black are massive poofs, and they’re recruiting others too. It’s disgusting.”

The boy punched him in the chest so hard he struggled to breathe for several seconds. Gilderoy wanted to argue about how stupid this boy’s ideas were (honestly, how could Remus and Sirius ‘recruit’ gay people?), but he didn’t think he could talk, he was crying so hard.

His legs buckled and he slid down the wall, curling up in a ball on the floor. He made sure to cradle his head, but they started kicking every other part of his body. They kicked his legs, his arms, his back, until his whole body was aching and he was certain his skin was going to be horribly bruised and his robes were getting torn. After a particularly hard kick to his back, he felt a crack and then intense pain started to spread through his chest, and he just knew his ribs had cracked.

Sobbing quietly, Gilderoy screwed his eyes up and tried to wait it out, wishing someone could be here to help him.

\---

Sirius black strolled along a corridor, swinging his arms and trying to pretend him hadn’t just spent three hours in detention. He turned a corner and headed back to the common room, hoping to locate Remus in time for their club to start.

Now in their sixth year at Hogwarts, he and Remus had been running their new club since the start of the school year, and had amassed a surprisingly large amount of followers from all seven years and all four houses. It had amazed Sirius to learn how many other students in the school were gay.

Of course, as Remus pointed out, not all of them would have to be gay. They could be bisexual, like Sirius, or just an ally like James, Lily and Peter. Still, it made him immensely happy to know how many of them were accepting and unprejudiced, especially considering that none of the teachers seemed bothered by it either. In fact, Professor Dumbledore was positively ecstatic when a very nervous Remus had initially suggested the idea of the two of them forming a gay club, and Sirius had to wonder why.

A group of fifth years passed him, all of them laughing like something hilarious had happened, and he hoped they hadn’t been picking on Remus. Lots of people liked to pick on Remus, and it made Sirius so angry. But he didn’t hear them say his name, so he hoped he was just being paranoid.

As he passed a broom cupboard, Sirius was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard a noise that made him stop. He could hear crying, horrible, agonised cries that sounded like the person was physically hurt. He probably should have gone away and found someone else, but it sounded like this person needed help, and he couldn’t just leave them.

So, with a slight sense of dread, Sirius crept closer. Sirius opened the door slowly, and saw a figure sat slumped on the floor, sobbing.

He recognised the boy instantly as Gilderoy Lockhart, one of the Ravenclaw second years who had been coming to their club right from the start. And it didn’t take two guesses to work out what had happened to the poor sod.

Gilderoy’s nose was pouring blood and looked oddly swollen, his eye was turning black, there was a oozing gash above his eyebrow, a couple of his teeth seemed to be missing, and he was holding at his chest in a way that suggested that his ribs were cracked. But the most telling thing was that his rainbow patterned badge (identical to the ones he, Remus and every other member of their club wore), that he always wore, appeared to have been ripped from the front of his robes.

Gilderoy looked up at him, his eyes brimming with tears.

“S-S-Sirius?” He stuttered, his voice thick and horribly shaky.

“What’s happened, Gil?” He said, kneeling down beside the younger boy. “Sorry, I know that’s a stupid question. I mean, who hurt you?”

But Gilderoy simply shook his head, more tears spilling down his face. He was clearly in a lot of pain, and Sirius wondered what other wounds he had that he couldn’t see because of his clothes. Gilderoy didn’t answer him, crying softly with his head resting on his shoulder.

Sirius tried to think what to do, even though it was hard to think with Gilderoy crying so much right next to him. He knew that the nearest office was Professor Flitwick’s, and, as he was Gilderoy’s head of house, Sirius decided to take him there, hoping he would know what to do.

“Come on, mate,” he said, trying to keep his voice soft. “Let’s get you some help.”

Gilderoy whimpered, and he didn’t know if he was agreeing or disagreeing. Sirius stood up and then, tucking his hands under Gilderoy’s armpits, managed to heave the smaller boy to his feet. He cried out in pain, swaying unsteadily, and Sirius had to grip onto his arm to keep him upright.

“You all right?” He asked. Gilderoy nodded, his eyes looking unfocused.

Slowly, they made their way down the corridor, and, finally, reached the right door. With Gilderoy leaning right against him, as though he couldn’t stay upright unaided, Sirius knocked on the door.

“Come in!”

Sirius opened the door, and helped Gilderoy into the doorway of the room. Professor Flitwick was sat at his desk, and Professor McGonagall was sat opposite him, and they both appeared to be stripping down a rather innocent looking feather quill, like they had once done to James’s broomstick after a Slytherin boy cursed it. Gilderoy whimpered slightly, bloody saliva dribbling down his chin.

“Sorry about this, Black,” Flitwick said, looking up at him briefly to check who was there, before looking back down at his desk. “But we’ll be done in a minute. This is just a – Merlin’s Beard! What’s happened to Lockhart?”

He had looked back up, and was now staring directly at Gilderoy. Professor McGonagall turned around in her seat, and her eyes widened.

“What on Earth has happened to him?” She said to Sirius, who stumbled further into the room, having to practically drag Gilderoy along with him.

The professors were both out of their seats, and rushed over to the two boys. McGonagall took Gilderoy from Sirius and helped him sit in her chair. Now the teachers were looking at him, Gilderoy looked horribly embarrassed, and covered his face with his hand as he continued to sob.

“You didn’t answer my question, Black,” McGonagall said, whilst Flitwick went over to the doorway and yelled at the nearest passing student to run and get Madame Pomfrey.

“Sorry, Professor,” he said. He was beginning to feel quite sick. “I found him in the broom cupboard ‘round the corner from here. I didn’t see anything, but it’s pretty obvious that he was beaten up.”

Sirius went over to Gilderoy and began to rub the younger boy’s back, but let go when he felt him wince.

“Also,” Sirius sighed. “His badge was gone,” he said, gesturing to his own badge pinned to the front of his robes, “so I think the reason for why they beat him up is pretty obvious too.”

McGonagall seemed to understand what he was implying. She smiled weakly, and kneeled down beside Gilderoy’s chair so they were at the same height.

“Who hurt you, Lockhart?” She said, in a soft tone of voice Sirius had never heard before.

But Gilderoy just shook his head, his lips clamped together as he tried to stop crying. It didn’t look like could speak. It looked like he was too scared to speak.

\---

The moment Remus saw Sirius, he knew something bad had happened. His boyfriend was bright red, sweating profusely, and looked deliriously angry as he stormed into the empty classroom they always used for their meetings. Before Remus had a chance to ask him what was wrong, Sirius had grabbed Remus by the front of his robes and was pulling him out of the room.

“I’ll be right back,” he said to the room full of bemused students.

Once they were outside, Sirius closed the door and leaned against the wall. Remus automatically put his arm around his boyfriend’s waist. He was shaking.

“Pads, what’s the matter?”

Sirius sighed, looking down at the floor. Remus could see a vein throbbing in his temple. “You know Gilderoy?”

Remus nodded, not liking where this was going. “The blond Ravenclaw second year?”

“Yeah,” Sirius nodded too, gritting his teeth, “well, he got beaten up earlier.”

Remus gasped. Sirius was shaking more violently now, and Remus hugged him tighter.

“By whom?” He eventually asked.

“We don’t know. He won’t tell us. All I know is they ripped his badge off, so it must have been someone who hates us.”

Remus sighed and leaned his head against Sirius’s. “But so many people hate us.”

“I know, that’s the bloody problem. I just want to hurt them so badly, Moony.” Sirius said, clenching his hands into tight, trembling fists. “How dare they hurt one of our gays.”

Remus found himself smiling. “’Our gays’?” He repeated, trying not to laugh.

Sirius looked at him, and the smallest of smiles fluttered across his tense face. But then he frowned again, and squeezed Remus so tightly he struggled to breathe.

“Yes, Remus, they are our gays, and I care about them all.”

“So do I, mate,” Remus said into his shoulder, feeling his boyfriend shake. He thought about poor Gilderoy and what those bastards must have done to him, and he felt exactly like Sirius did; he cared about him like he was his own child. “So do I.”

\---

Sirius led Remus through the school, tightly gripping his boyfriend’s hand. He knew Gilderoy would be looking a lot better now thanks to Madame Pomfrey’s skills at healing, but that didn’t really help to calm him down.

He felt so angry, almost like his own son had been hurt. Because, even though it sounded pathetic, he did kind of think of all the students at his gay club as his family, especially when he knew that most of them had been chucked out by their own families. And, at the moment, he felt very much like he wanted to beat the crap out of whoever had hurt poor Gilderoy.

When they entered the hospital wing, they quickly spotted Gilderoy’s bed and rushed over. Madame Pomfrey and Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were crowded around the bed. Remus gasped when he saw Gilderoy, because, even though his broken nose had been fixed, he still looked absolutely awful. His eye was still swollen, his face was still covered in cuts, and he was unconscious. Sirius assumed Madame Pomfrey had given him some sort of sleeping draught.

“The poor bastard,” his boyfriend muttered. Remus sank into one of the chairs beside the bed and put his head in his hands. Sirius stood behind him and rubbed his back. “We’ve got to find who did it.”

Sirius sighed, knowing Remus was totally true. They couldn’t let the bastards who did this get away with it.

\---

“We sure taught him.”

“I don’t think that little fairy will be acting so gay in public anymore.”

Sirius froze, and he felt Remus skid to a halt beside him. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He knew exactly who these boys were talking about, and it made him feel sick.

“That’s Richard Waters,” Remus hissed. “Slytherin fifth year. Complete homophobe.”

“Did you see his face when I kneed him in the balls?”

Before Sirius could even process his anger, Remus had let go of his hand and was walking towards Richard and his friends.

“You bastard, how could you say that?!” Remus snapped, storming up to them. He looked even angrier than Sirius felt, and that was saying something.

“Excuse me?” One of Richard’s friends said. “Who’re you to be talking to us, you fairy?”

Sirius was immediately beside Remus, having to hold him back and he tried to hit Richard. Remus had gone very red, and he looked like he wanted to hit Richard with a particularly nasty curse.

“Don’t you dare call me that!” Remus yelled, fighting against Sirius’s grip. “And how dare you say that about Gilderoy?”

Richard smiled like he was enjoying. “Because it’s true, Lupin.”

“It is not true, you wanker!” Remus said through gritted teeth. “Why can’t you pick on someone your own size? He’s only a second year.”

“All right then,” Richard said, smiling a grin that told Sirius something awful was going to happen.

He reached for his wand, but Sirius was quicker.

“ _Expelliarmus_!” He yelled, and Richard’s wand flew through the air. He caught it with ease and smiled smugly.

“Don’t you dare try to hurt my boyfriend, you bastard,” he said, keeping his voice calm but making sure to give Richard a deathly glare.

He threw Richard’s wand out of the nearest window and pulled Remus away. He kept his wand pointed at Richard and his friends, and, thankfully, they all walked away.

“He is such a wanker,” Remus gasped, and he spun around and punched the wall as hard as he could. Sirius just stood there, not knowing what to say.

Then he turned around again, kissed him, and pulled Sirius into a tight hug. “Thank you. You could’ve got yourself hurt, but you stood up for me.”

“It was nothing,” he said, rubbing his boyfriend’s back.

“We need to tell McGonagall it was him, Pads,” Remus said when he let go. “We can’t let him get away with it.”

Sirius didn’t even need to agree. They started running, and grabbed each other’s hands as they hurtled through the school. Desperately out of breath, they raced back into the hospital wing, where the two Professors were just leaving.

“Black! Lupin!” Professor McGonagall snapped. “Don’t run.”

“Sorry, Professor,” Remus gasped, skidding to a halt. Sirius stopped too, trying to catch his breath. His head was swimming and his feet felt a bit numb.

“It was Richard Waters,” he said. “He was the one who did it.”

“Are you sure?” Flitwick asked.

“Definitely. And he called us homophobic things and tried to curse Remus.”

McGonagall raised her eyebrows, but she didn’t look totally shocked. Ever since Sirius and Remus had started what James called Operation Gay Pride two years ago, they had been reporting anyone and everyone for even the slightest homophobic incident, and it had become obvious just how prevalent this problem was.

“Well, we’ll obviously be dealing with that,” she said. “We need to make it obvious to the students at this school that homophobia isn’t acceptable. He’ll get a severe punishment, I reckon at least three weeks detention, and a letter to his parents.” Flitwick nodded in agreement.

“Thank you,” Sirius said, smiling in relief. “Thank you, Professor.”

But, as he looked over at Gilderoy and through about what that bastard had said to Remus, he couldn’t help but wish Richard would get a much worse punishment, preferably even getting expelled, because he never wanted to see that wanker ever again.

\---

Remus and Sirius made their way back to the meeting room, Remus thinking about how much had changed since he was planning on starting earlier. He was certainly feeling better now he knew who had hurt Gilderoy and that he was going to be punished, but it still made him feel awful whenever someone was bullied for being gay. They went into the room, and found everyone chatting and looking generally confused.

“Hello, everyone,” Sirius said, clearly trying to sound calm and not quite succeeding. “You might want to know why we’re so late. We’ve been distracted by something pretty important, something that hasn’t happened before.”

“One of our members, Gilderoy Lockhart, was beaten up earlier,” Remus said, taking Sirius’s hand.

The room broke out into gasps and horrified whispers. Lily looked like she was going to be sick. Peter’s eyes had gone very wide.

“Who did it?” James yelled, his fists clenched.

“Richard Waters,” Sirius said, smiling a slightly warped smile. “And whilst I’m not supposed to advocate violence, I’m not going to stop any of you if you want to go and get the revenge Gilderoy can’t get at the moment.”

Remus saw the way James and Sirius was looking at him, and had a feeling that Richard might find himself dangling upside down in the air over the next few days.

“And we need to stay together,” Remus said, interlocking his fingers with Sirius’s and raising their hands in the air in front of them. For the first time, he saw that Sirius’s fingers were covered in Gilderoy’s blood. He felt a bit sick. “We’ll be stronger together. And we’re not going to let fucking homophobic shitheads ruin our club, are we?”

He looked up, and everyone started to applaud. Lily got up and pulled him and Sirius into a joint hug.

“And I think we need to go and visit Gilderoy in the medical wing, because his family don’t talk to him anymore, do they? And it might sound sappy, but I think we’re the only family he’s got.”

“And,” Sirius added. “We’re going to go out into that school and hug and kiss and be gay in those bastards faces, and there’s going to be no-fucking-thing they can do about it!”

And, as though to prove his point, to deafening cheers throughout the room, he pulled Remus into a kiss.


End file.
